How we made the Bender Tent Page
Okay so you saw the pictures, or you saw us at an event and you
just have to know HOW we built that Bender Tent!
This page will show you step by step what we used and how we
stuck it all together. You might be asking yourself why a pair
of Roma are living in a tent when they could be living large in
a vardo (Roma House on wheels)? Well it is simple, Vardos are
not period to the SCA. Vardos, as we know them today, appeared
sometime in the 1800's. Now I know there was a wagon used for
transportation and people slept in it before then- but not us,
we were lugging these tents around. There is a
description of Roma encamped near a crossroads in their low,
black tents. (I'll post that link when I find it again)
"So what's the deal?" you say, Your bender isn't black. Yeah,
yeah so what.. we have not taken the time to dye it yet.
A "traditional" bender tent is made from cut saplings that are
placed in holes drilled in a ridgepole. The Saplings are tied
off and a cover of cloth (or furs or some such) We covered ours
in canvas. We didn't want to go to a huge expense on this
canvas either, so we purchased painter's drop cloths and
waterproofed them. If you do the same, here is a word of
advise, get the thickest you can find. We used four, ten to
twelve oz weight nine by fifteen foot drop clothes we purchased
at the Hardware store. Then we water proofed them with a
camper's spray bottle. (We are re-doing them with a better
water sealant someday.) At events where rain is a sure thing,
we pull out a "blue tarp" and stick it under the canvas. We
sewed the four cloths into a big rectangle (short ends are the
front/back, long ends are the sides). We also left one seam
open for the front "door".
"What about sunforger?" Well.. I don't want to pay that much-
but it should work.
Next we needed a Ridgepole. I got a two by four by ten and
whacked off two feet. I choose this length cause I wanted our
bender to be about ten feet long. (The two back poles are set
out two feet from the back end of the ridgepole so it is about
ten feet- Trust me.) Now I drilled holes into the ridgepole,
two per "rib." We have four side poles (or ribs) in our tent,
so I drilled eight holes. I did these with a large hole-saw,
(it isn't a saw, it's a drill bit- but I didn't name it.) that
was something like two and a half inches. I did this so it
would be easy to stick the rib poles in the ridge pole and
still have plenty of room in the holes.
Now we work on the side poles. Since I do not want to cut
saplings at each event site, I decided to go with PVC tubing.
We got three-quarter inch diameter two hundred psi tubing, cost
us like ten bucks total- cool. I was going to cut down the
lengths to eight feet, but why bother.. They are ten feet and
work just fine. We have four spines (or ribs) so that's eight
poles plus the two rear poles, so ten poles are needed.
We also need some way to keep these poles set in the ground.
With the saplings you just dig a hole and stick a few feet in,
we did not want to dig holes like that all over the country.
So, I got a box of ten-inch long gutter spikes. These we pound
halfway into the ground and then set the poles over them,
perfect!
Now that you know what we used and why, let us see this thing
go up.
Proceed to steps one-three
If you have any questions, shoot me an e-mail.
All photos, graphics, scuplture, web pages
and descriptions are copyright
(©) Dr. Geof Franklin unless otherwise stated.
Please do not copy, use or link to our graphics or files
without permission, Thank you!
This web site is the official virtual store for the company of
Bent Metal Forge.
Both this web site and Bent Metal Forge are owned by Dr. Geof
Franklin who can be reached via : geof@bentmetalforge.com
For any issues relating to the design or function of this web
site please contact our webmaster via : webmaster@bentmetalforge.com
Our privacy policy can be viewed via this link : http://www.bentmetalforge.com/service.html#PPS
Site
Map This page last updated:
